


Marry Me?

by possiblyobsessed



Series: MCU Ships Oneshots [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, I tried to write angst, Peter Parker Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 00:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16586951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblyobsessed/pseuds/possiblyobsessed
Summary: Michelle Jones had known since she was four that she would marry Peter Parker. Peter Parker took a little longer to get there, but he proposed more than once.AU where Peter and MJ were childhood friends





	Marry Me?

Michelle Jones couldn’t remember a time in her life when she hadn’t known Peter Parker. He had always been there, and she had always been glad for it.

He was there when she got her first art set. He was there when she lost her first tooth. He was with her the first time she went to an art gallery. He was there for all her first days at school. He was there when she punched someone for the first time (to prove that girls weren’t weak). He was there to support her the first time she went to a protest.

In return she had been there the first time he broke a bone. She had been there when he got his first science book. She was with him during the battle of New York, so she was there when he decided he wanted to become a superhero. She was there when his parents died. She was there when Ben died. She was there to pinch him and promise the Stark internship wasn’t an elaborate dream.

Michelle Jones had decided by age four that she was going to marry Peter Parker one day. There were moments over the years that almost convinced her he had done the same. But, in the end, she knew he didn’t come to the decision until much later.

\---

At eight years old parties were small and exciting. They were exclusive events. Peter was only at Keira’s party because MJ had forced him to come. He thought Keira was annoying. She clung to him. If you were to ask him now Peter would say that Keira is the only person that has ever had a crush on him, because at age eight he was Peter Parker, not Penis Parker.

It was a dress up party. Naturally Peter had dressed up as Iron Man. May had asked him if there was anyone else he wanted to go as, but Peter was insistent as always. MJ was a fairy. She was wearing a glittery white shirt and a light pink tutu. She had shiny wings strapped to her back. In was very un-Michelle. There was rainbow sparkles on her face, which had also managed to get into her hair. Peter knew Michelle had wanted to go as an astronaut. He had been at her house when she had a twelve minute screaming match with her mother about what to go as. She lost. Peter had considered telling her she looked pretty, but he had decided it wasn’t worth the punch to the face he would get.

It had been two hours of eating and running around when people began to announce they were bored. They decided to do the obvious and play Truth or Dare. Everyone sat in a circle in the middle of the lawn and Peter made sure he was next to MJ, unfortunately Keira sat directly across from him and batted her eyelids.

“Truth or Dare, Peter?” she asked.

Peter frowned, “Dare.” As far as Peter was concerned that was the safest choice. He could do anything, but he couldn’t say anything.

She giggled, “Okay… Um, I dare you to ask someone in this circle to marry you!”

Around the circle boys and girls giggled. Peter knew Keira wanted him to ask her. Everyone knew Keira wanted Peter to ask her. But there was only one person in the circle he would ever consider marrying. She was sitting right next to him and she really did look pretty. She still looked uncomfortable and Peter definitely liked her better when she was in a t-shirt and shorts with mud on her face but he couldn’t deny that she looked angelic. He grinned and turned to her, “Hey MJ? Will you marry me?” He gave her a toothy grin.

Keira let out a cry of disbelief, and his best friend, in true Michelle Jones fashion, pecked his cheek and said, “No thanks, Parker.”

\---

At age eleven it really wasn’t all that important to pass every class. Peter Parker didn’t get the memo though. He had spent the last week and a half freaking out, because how was he ever going to do this art assessment?

He didn’t have anything against the subject, in fact he loved photography and he loved going and looking at paintings with Michelle. Key word being looking. But now, now he had to paint himself. And he really didn’t want to. If he had started when he had got the task he probably could have succeeded in making something pretty nice, but he had instead spent that time stressing about starting. And that led to him having an unstarted project that was due the next day.

Peter had spent the last hour calling and texting MJ, in an attempt to convince her to come and help him, at least with the drawing part. She had refused at school today and told him he should have done it by now. But, he was fairly sure that he could break her down.

He sent another text and then turned to the blank canvas. The photograph next to him seemed to taunt him. It was the small fruit and vegetable garden that one of the tenants in the apartment had started on the roof. It was also what he intended to paint. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to paint it. The paints stared up at him. How did he even make the colours he wanted? Yes, blue and yellow made green, but how did he make _that_ green. MJ had said it was like chemistry, he just had to mix the right amount of everything. She lied, clearly, because this was nothing like chemistry.

There was a loud bang on the door. Peter fell out of the chair. The banging continued. Peter pulled himself up and headed to the door, glad for the excuse to leave his work. He pulled open the door and sighed in relief.

“MJ.”

“Don’t get all soppy, loser, we’ve got work to do.”

Peter nodded and led her back to his blank canvas. She groaned and smacked his shoulder.

It took two and three quarter hours for MJ to be happy enough with what she saw to leave. She had separated the paints into portions so Peter could mix them. She had helped draw the picture for him to paint (read: she drew the picture for him to paint). She showed him which brush he should use where. Peter had listened and watched intently. It was the quietest she had ever known him to be.

She clapped her hands together, “Well, you better do well on this Pete. Because I wasted twenty minutes getting here and it’ll take longer to get home.”

Peter hummed, “Marry me.”

MJ raised a brow, “Why?”

“Because, then you’d live here and it wouldn’t take you twenty minutes to get here and do all my art projects,” he said, complete with a shit-eating grin.

“No.”

\---

When she was fifteen Michelle Jones fell in love with Peter Parker while having to watch him fall for Liz Allan. Sure, she’d known her whole life she was going to marry him, but that had just been because she assumed he was the only boy she would ever be able to put up with for her entire life. But something changed and she knew, she just did, that she was going to marry him because she loved him. But all Peter wanted was Liz. And she couldn’t blame him, it’s not like she ever actually showed any interest and Liz was gorgeous. But Liz was gone and Peter was around less and less.

She figured it was fair to say that she put up with a lot of crap for Peter.

Every Friday night, Peter, Ned and her would go to one of their houses to binge geeky movies, eat and gossip. Sometimes they painted each other’s nails or built Lego. Except, Peter had been a no show at the last two and it had only been her and Ned.

Today, it was at Peter’s, so he couldn’t miss it. Yet, she was sitting alone in the middle of his apartment and had no notification from Ned or Peter. May had gone out just after she let MJ in and said Peter would probably be back soon. She had texted Peter but he hadn’t replied. She decided to text Ned.

_Why aren’t you at Peter’s? Is he with you, he won’t pick up…_

She walked over to the table and looked through the collection of movies while she waited.

_No, why are you at Peter’s? He cancelled today. Told us at school._

MJ frowned, Peter had certainly not told them at school. At least, not her. She couldn’t believe he was cancelling a third week in a row. She had already told her parents she would be at his for the night. She slipped her phone away and resisted the urge to smash her head against something.

She knew something was wrong. Peter was always excited by movie night. This is not what excitement looked like. She also knew it had something to do with the internship. That was when Peter had started frequently disappearing. That was also when Peter and Ned started keeping secrets from her. Whispering and giving each other looks she couldn’t understand. She had tried very hard not to be bothered by it, but it hurt. They were supposed to be a trio, but the boys acted very much like a duo. MJ sucked it up though. She didn’t have other friends to turn to.

She was almost at the door when a loud crash echoed from Peter’s room. She turned quickly and headed over.

“Pete? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Don’t come in,” he didn’t sound okay. It sounded like he was in pain.

Also, by telling her not to come in he had spiked her curiosity. She figured the worst that could happen was that he wasn’t dressed. They used to bath together, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. It wasn’t like she wanted to see him undressed. Nope, she’d never even thought about it.

She turned the handle and stepped into his room. What she found was beyond anything she could imagine. She felt her jaw drop. She was gaping, and MJ didn’t gape. Peter was, in fact, fully dressed. In the Spider-Man suit. He stared right back at her and waited for her to scream and be furious.

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t Spider-Man?” Peter squeaked.

MJ looked behind her. Then at the floor, then she met Peter’s eyes. She was sure she said something meaningful, but for some reason it sounded like, “WHAT THE HELL?”

Peter winced. He wanted to explain he did, but his suit felt like it was getting tighter and tighter and he could feel blood spreading over his chest. He tapped the spider symbol on his chest.

“Oh. Oh, okay,” MJ spun around and almost walked into a wall, “Alright, I’ll just,” she pointed to the door but found herself turning back to Peter. She didn’t have time to appreciate how well built he was though, because all she could see was the large gash across his chest. Her heart dropped. How had she not figured this out sooner? Of course Peter Parker, her Peter Parker who only wanted to help people and always disappeared, was a web-slinging superhero. Which meant he was constantly getting hurt for others. She couldn’t explain the way her chest twisted. She wanted to be proud, but she had never been so scared before.

Peter smiled weakly, “Sorry. Had to get that off.”

Peter began to walk to the other side of the room, where a first aid bag that Mr Stark had made for him sat. MJ beat him to it and pushed him back on the bed. She immediately opened it and got to work cleaning the cut.

She willed her hands to stop trembling. She willed her brain to unfreeze. She hoped Peter couldn’t see how red and nervous she had become at their closeness. Because this wasn’t like when she rested her head on his shoulder during movies. Because he stared directly at her. And they were facing each other. If she just leaned forward a tiny bit she could- no. No. She had to help Peter. That was it.

Peter couldn’t help but watch MJ. Her hair was a bit messy, but the stray strands caught the light, and her hands trembled a bit even as he tried to tell her he would heal anyway. While she stitched up the wound he told her all about how he had ended up Spider-Man. He told her why he didn’t tell her immediately. He didn’t know why he was told her. She didn’t ask, but he felt like it needed to be said. She guessed that Ned already knew and he felt guilty. Through the whole process he was still half expecting an angry outburst. Part of him even thought she might start to cry, but he knew MJ didn’t cry.

When she finished she packed up the first aid items and washed her hands. Peter flopped back onto his bed. Part of his brain was already asleep. The other part formulated a plan anyway. The plan tumbled out of his mouth without permission.

“Hey MJ,” he called, “I think we should get married. Would you marry me?”

MJ almost dropped the contained of needles, “What?” she choked out.

He sighed, “I just feel like you’re the only person who could deal with this so calmly, you know. I don’t think anyway else would look after me like you do.”

MJ swallowed and bit her bottom lip. She looked over at Peter, but he was asleep. She shook her head and despite the pain she felt she smiled, “I would,” she whispered.

\---

Twenty-three years old and Ned Leeds is hired by companies around the world for how well he codes security, he sends his works to Lego museums on the side. When he’s home he attempts to split his time between his two best friends who haven’t spoken since the disastrous incident of Peter’s twentieth birthday. The two don’t even see each other anymore but he still loves them both equally. He wishes they were still together.

Twenty-three years old and Michelle Jones was well on her way to being one of the famous journalists in America, with a small artistic career on the side. She heads home every night to write articles and spends most evenings alone, because Ned is always out of town. She tells herself she hates Peter Parker, but she knows she would still drop everything to marry him. Deep down she’s still only four.

Twenty-three years old and Peter Parker was rising through the ranks at Stark Industries, while still anonymously swinging the streets on the side. He doesn’t reach home until the early hours of the morning and his social life consists of seeing Ned every so often. He hasn’t seen Michelle Jones for three years and he couldn’t think of anything worse than seeing her. He only wants her to be safe.

Peter and Michelle pretend it’s not weird that they completely cut out someone they couldn’t live without for the first twenty years of their life. They say they’re not still in love with someone they no longer know. They act like they didn’t change each other, but they know they did. Ned pretends they don’t both ask him about how the other is doing whenever they see him. He says it’s not hard to split his time between two people who wish they were strangers. He acts like it doesn’t make him angry, but he thinks they’re selfish.

Everyone’s life has become routine.

MJ never strays from her route home. She could make it from her office to her one bedroom apartment with her eyes closed. Sometimes she thinks she’ll test that theory, but even three years later she doesn’t feel safe. Things would be different if Peter had stayed. She would be able to stay out as late as she wanted and she would walk home without constantly checking her surroundings. It made her mad every afternoon. He said it was to protect her, but she wondered if he knew she felt more in danger than ever and that he had hurt her more than a couple beatings ever could. Sometimes she wished she could tell him. Instead, happy birthday plays in the back of her mind, but she can’t bring herself to ask Ned for Peter’s number.

His birthdays were always the worst. He could ignore the hole in his chest for as long as he wanted. Except for on his birthday, because then all he could hear was MJ screaming. Nothing had ever hurt so much as not being able to get to her, as watching her get hurt, as hearing her scream and cry and beg, his MJ who didn’t scream or cry or beg. After she had been kidnapped and tortured he had to let her go. Had to break up with her because it was the only way he could keep her safe. He had hoped everyone would understand and see that it was what needed to happen, but MJ, May, Ned and Mr Stark had all called him an idiot. If anyone were to ask he would say that his biggest regret was ever dating her, he knew from the start he was putting her in danger but he was selfish and needy and he had kissed her anyway. He had loved her for three (seven) years, until he had to let her go. Of course, anyone could see his biggest regret was breaking up with her.

Today, he had gotten it into his head that to make sure he could get to sleep without his heart tearing a little more he would just head to Queens as Spider-Man and make sure MJ was okay. Theoretically, it was a good idea, but in reality seeing the woman he was in love with for the first time in three years was like having all his vital organs ripped out. It felt like a blunt knife was being twisted around in his stomach, slowly piercing through him. He could feel himself bleeding out without being injured. However, he still followed MJ the whole way home.

When she started to walk across the road without looking he was too surprised to spring into action. Never in his life had he know her to be so careless. Without a second thought he swung down and pulled her to safety on the top of a building. She pummelled his chest and screamed the whole way. He placed her down and she glared at him. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking because her eyes showed every emotion and no emotion all at once.

“What the fuck?” she demanded, pushing herself away. And there was Peter, granted he was in the suit, but it was still Peter. Her Peter, who was no longer her Peter. She didn’t think she could hurt more, but now she stood in front of her own personal hell with her heart falling out of her chest. MJ had once read that people would prefer to be smacked in the face with a metal pole than have their heart broken, but she thought that was stupid because her heart was broken and it felt like she was being smacked in the face with a metal pole anyway.

Peter hesitated for a moment. There was a million things he should have said. There was a million things he wanted to say. Instead he pointed to the road, “You were about to be hit by a car, how could you be so stupid?” he shouted. The words slipped out before he could think about them.

He turned to the road at the same time as MJ. It was empty. There wasn’t a single car there. But, he could have sworn there was a car. Couldn’t he? Wasn’t there? Where was it? Why hadn’t he heard it? Had he even seen it? Suddenly he couldn’t even remember why or how he ended up standing there with MJ.

She glared at him. It was obvious she was furious, but he still jolted at the realisation that it was him she was angry at. More than angry at. There was a tear streaming down her face and all he wanted to do was lean forward and hug her. To swoop her up and hide the both of them away. Instead he stood there and stared. She was gorgeous and he was an idiot. And perhaps he deserved the pain. Perhaps he deserved her hatred.

“What?” She shouted. “What? What? Why? Are you here to break me again? Do you still not care?” Her jaw was clenched and she reached forward and pushed him. Shoved him right in the chest to try and make him feel even a bit of the pain she felt, “Are you still selfish Peter Parker who thinks he can save the world and cut everyone off.”

Peter grabbed her wrists as her hands flew at him again, “I didn’t want you to be hurt because of me."

“WELL GUESS WHAT?” she managed to shout even louder, “GUESS WHAT PARKER? YOU HURT ME. YOU DID. NO ONE ELSE. NO ONE ELSE COULD EVER HURT ME SO MUCH!”

She started to sob. He could feel tears in his own eyes just watching her. Just hearing her, because she was right. They all were. He was an arsehole. But for some reason she buried her head in his chest, her body heaved as she sobbed. He wrapped his arms around her. Instinct had taken over.

“I-I-I just h-had to make sure you were okay,” he choked out.

She pulled away and nodded. She surprised them both when she grinned, “How about a birthday drink, Parker?”

Things had always worked in an unexplainable way for Peter Parker and Michelle Jones. Maybe that was why they were doing something that was just so ridiculously unusual. They sat, heartbroken and tearful, in a bar with the cause of their heartbreak and hardly talked to one another. Yet, somehow, one drink turned to two and two to three and three to four and they had both lost count but the silence had turned to sound and it was Peter’s best birthday in years.

He didn’t know he was crying until MJ asked why he was in tears, “I’m just so stupid you know? You once said you’d marry me and years later I left you.”

She nods, she’s spontaneously got no idea and every idea of what he’s talking about, “I guess.”

“Would you marry me, still?”

She downs her drink, “Oh, in a heartbeat.”

\---

Peter and MJ get married at twenty-eight. Peter proposes after a visit to May’s. They were just driving home and MJ decided they should pull over on the highway and get out to star gaze. Peter had been carrying the ring around for months at this stage, and it just seemed like the moment to do it. It’s simple and it’s unplanned. It’s very them.

They tell Ned first. The three of them dived head first into planning. The only problem that arose in the whole process was that both Peter and MJ wanted Ned in their wedding party. In the end there is no Maid of Honour or Best Man, but Ned is the Best Person. It’s a small service. Everyone cries at some stage.

Michelle gets to give a speech on how she is marrying the boy she decided she would marry when she was four, and who she fell in love with at fifteen. Peter gets to tell everyone about how he is marrying the only woman he had ever loved, who he proposed to five times. The added bonus of the final time is that he wasn’t dared to, overly excited about passing, tired or drunk. He was just in love.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was my first time writing a romantic relationship, so hopefully it didn't suck. This idea was rolling around in my head so I had to get it out and post it. I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!


End file.
